Art is an expression of humanity, evidence of a culture gone or existing. Experiencing art gives us pleasure, whether paintings, sculpture, music, film, theater, architecture, dance, or another form. Art has been part of human existence since the cave man and always will be.

Regionalism is an art genre specific to the American heartland — beyond the Mississippi River and mainly in Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. Regionalist artists depict everyday life and scenery that satisfies our need for rural nostalgia, most of us having left the country for the city in this time of urbanization. There were and are many regionalist painters. Examples of the work of only eight of them are offered here. These paintings were chosen because they could all have been painted in eastern Jones County.

The above is the beginning of the essay Iowa In Paint. It includes twenty-five fantastic paintings and some chatter on the subject. You may receive it via e-mail by asking JudyNelson08@gmail.com or see the hardcopy at Wregie Memorial Library, Oxford Jct. IA. Here is Eric Sloane’s Spring Sky.